A “Mileage Run” is a trip taken for the sole sake of earning miles and elite status. A great mileage run is one taken where the cost of the flight per mile earned is under 1.5 cents as you’ll be earning elite status and all of the benefits that come along with status while getting miles at a great price.
A “Mattress Run” is a hotel room booked for the sole sake of taking advantage of hotel promotions in order to earn hotel points and free stays.
Recently Hyatt ran a promotion called Faster Free Nights in which for every 2 stays at any Hyatt worldwide you would earn 1 free night at any Hyatt worldwide as well as 2,000 bonus Hyatt Gold Passport points and 5 points per dollar spent.
Additionally they also had a promo code for 21% off all hotel rates for booking pre-paid rooms.
I had wanted to stay at the incredible Grand Hyatt in Kauai for some time, but the daily rates were $500+.
What I did was simple, over the past month I booked hotel rooms every night at a Hyatt Place for $60 a night. With the Faster Free Nights promotion this meant that I’d be able to stay at the Hyatts on Kauai and Maui for just $120 a night. Plus I’d be able to earn tons of Hyatt points as well as top-tier elite status to get free upgrades and even more bonus points. The only trick was that because the promotion is 1 free night for every 2 stays, I couldn’t book the same hotel on back to back nights or else it would be considered 1 stay. In Kansas the solution was simple, there were 2 Hyatt Places just a block away from each other!
Hit the comments if you’ve ever been on a mileage or a mattress run before!
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10 Comments On "Forget The “Mileage Run”, This Is About The “Mattress Run!”"
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Hi Dan,
Is the promo still on?
Just wondering if there is a reason that the promo wasn’t posted?, and now we know why you were strangly offering free hotel rooms recently
@moshe:
The promo is over, but it does come and go, so I will be sure to post about it next time.
I actually thought I did post it back when I first saw it a few months ago, but by the time I started doing the stays in December and realized that I hadn’t posted about the promo it was already too late to register.
dan…one does need an mba to think up the best possible ways to accumulate and max out usage of miles, etc:-) is there a business already in place, or a website that all one has to do is put in all their information and can then be informed what to do or what more to do to get the best use?
I hope you’re having a great time!
thanks Dan. Enjoy!!!
did u have to actually check-in and stay there or it was good enough to just pre pay for the room and never actually showing up?
Im right with you Dan
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp83/yubier/Diamond.jpg
flew my first mileage run in Dec LAX-JFK $150 ai to reach gold on DL, (sorry Dan, Im a DL man)
a few years back american offered a promo that if i were to accumulate 10,000 MILES (not points like the challenge) within 3 months i would get platinum status. being that at the time i wasnt even on track to make gold for the next year, and already having 5,000 miles, i took a flight from new york to la on shushan purim (no yeshiva) stayed there for a few hours, then came back. (the justification for spending $300 on the ticket was that i usually fly five times a year from ny to la, so if i would be platinum i would receive 100% mileage bonus = 25,000 miles = free ticket so it balances itself out plus i get all the perks of being platinum!)
Like Dan said, the promo comes up quite often. And u do have to check-in personally but u can check-out online. Even better is if u combine this w/ the double stay promo that Hyatt has. If Dan booked a rm for 31 seperate days(or stay if u will) counted dbl then that would be 62 stays. That would also put u at Diamond status. Depending where u live makes a difference in the rate of the hotels to do this. Example:the rate in Wyoming compared to NYC. But if u add the 21% discount promo(non-refundable), this makes a difference as well. And/use this w/ the breakfast promo. The only drawback to the FFN promo is that u only have a short period of time to use the free nites. The promo started in mid-Sept & ended Dec 31. U have until Feb 28 to use/lose them. Hopefully Dan added the G2 BONUSES to his FFN’s while he’s away having a heck of a good time.
At the moment, Hyatt has another promo of some sort. It’s a status match whereas if u have 10 stays at another chain they will match this & elevate u to Diamond status.